A shack day was held at the QTH of Mike, G0JXX, with a vague theme of repairing or generally sorting out any pieces of kit members were having trouble with. Members brought along a variety of objects and all were successfully sorted out, at least to some degree.
The weather was glorious so we started off with the serious business of standing in the garden drinking tea and catching up, before deciding we really ought to get started with the projects in hand. At this point David and Bill disappeared off to David's to sort out some VHF antennas for the forthcoming contests.
First on the bench was Martin's poorly Codar AT5. With some assistance from Mike it was soon feeling better. Meanwhile, Chris had brought along his homebrew ATU which needed no attention but gathered much admiration as it is beautifully constructed.
Nick had brought a selection of variable capacitors and fixed inductors for identification. With the help of Mike's LCR meter the capacitors were identified. The inductors were identified by a combination of size/style, markings and experience. We all have different skills and they were well and truly shared on this shack day.
Gary had brought his Advance E2 signal generator which had stopped working 25 years after he bought it in "well used" condition at a rally. With Mike's help the fault was traced to the rectifier valve. Fortunately Mike's stock of spares included exactly the right type and the signal generator is hopefully ready for another 25 years service.
In addition to his AT5, Martin had also brought along a homebrew PSU for it that had a "mystery" socket to provide some sort of Tx/Rx switching. The wiring was slightly confusing but eventually Gary unraveled it and provided Martin with a wiring diagram for the plug.
Paul had brought along a scanning receiver that he had been struggling to set up. With Martin patiently prodding the buttons and Nick consulting the manual as required the receiver was soon set up and much more useful than it had previously been.
The final piece of equipment to be examined was the 1943 vintage US War Department I-56-J test set. Mike had acquired this for the club as part of a large Ebay lot. Mike had fortunately found the manual online and printed it out. Gary spent quite some time reading the manual to figure out what the equipment was supposed to do. When it came to taking the covers off to see what was going on inside (and to replace the ancient mains cable before applying any power!) it rebuffed our advances. With the screws all removed the cover wasn't coming off so it was left for another day. Gary had evidently been bitten by the restoration bug and ended up taking it home to have another go at it.
All in all it was a fabulous day with several pieces of equipment fixed, set up or understood and lots of valuable knowledge and experience shared in the true spirit of amateur radio. Many thanks to Mike and Linda for their hospitality.